2 hurt during explosion at Long Grove home, 50 others damaged

Countryside fire chief Jeff Steingart details the explosion that leveled a home and damaged 50 others in a northwest subdivision on Friday night. (Posted on: April 26, 2014)

Countryside fire chief Jeff Steingart details the explosion that leveled a home and damaged 50 others in a northwest subdivision on Friday night. (Posted on: April 26, 2014)

Michelle ManchirTribune reporter

A large explosion leveled a home and damaged 50 others in a northwest suburban subdivision Friday night, prompting an emergency response from multiple jurisdictions and startling residents in neighboring communities miles away.

Crews are still on the scene investigating this morning, said a dispatcher for the Countryside Fire Protection District. The dispatcher confirmed that no one was inside the main home, which was about 5,000 square feet, and about 50 other nearby homes within a quarter of a mile radius sustained "moderate to severe damage.''

Two people were treated on the scene, the dispatcher said. One was an adult woman, an owner of the home, who was crossing the street in front of her home when the explosion occurred, said Countryside Fire Protection District Chief Jeff Steingart. Her back was to the home when it blew up, said Steingart, who characterized her injury as "scratches."

"It's a miracle that nobody had life-threatening injuries or got killed," Steingart said.

"That's what makes this just unimaginable ... that somebody lives."

The woman had been inside the home, noticed it was on fire, and had left the building, Steingart said.

The woman and a person injured in an adjacent house were treated and released at the scene.

About 10:40 p.m., an explosion was reported at Trenton Court and Wellington Drive in the Royal Melbourne subdivision in Long Grove, Sgt. Gianni Giamberduca of the Lake County Sheriff's Office said. The subdivision backs up to the Royal Melbourne Country Club, the dispatcher said.

First responders found a home had been leveled and several nearby homes had caught fire, said Giamberduca, who said early indications were that the explosion had been caused by natural gas.

Saturday morning, house insulation littered the lawns of homes blocks away from the explosion site, which sits inside a gated community that abuts the golf course. Six homes are believed to be destroyed with dozens others damaged, Steingart said.

About a dozen people are estimated to be displaced but all said they had relatives or friends to stay with, said Steingart, who said the fire department is investigating the cause with North Shore Gas, the state fire marshal and the the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. The Illinois Commerce Commission is also involved, officials said.

North Shore Gas had been in the area prior to the explosion investigating a gas odor, Steingart said.

Bonnie Johnson, a spokeswoman for North Shore Gas, said Saturday morning that her company is working with the agencies involved in the investigation and had no further information regarding the cause. She said the utility's priority is to restore natural gas service to the 36 impacted customers.

Neighbors who walked dogs or jogged around the gated neighborhood Saturday morning stopped to gawk at the wreckage where a house once stood.

Dolph Sharp said he lives about a mile from the explosion, but it still knocked some pictures off the wall in his home.

"It was the loudest boom I've ever heard," he said.

About 12:30 a.m., a man standing in front of a closed gate outside the subdivision said no pedestrians or drivers, including residents, were being allowed inside.

The man, who declined to identify himself but was carrying a walkie-talkie, said officials were investigating the blast as a natural gas explosion. He declined to provide further details.

Several residents reported a large blast that shook homes in neighboring suburbs.

"It sounded like a huge explosion," said Carole Keith, who said she lives in Vernon Hills, about a mile and a half from the site of the explosion. "It felt like a furnace in my house -- my own house -- had exploded."

The explosion brought hundreds of people outside their homes, Keith said. Smoke and debris were visible from roads close to the site of the blast, said the Vernon Hills resident, who drove closer to assess the situation and was turned away by police and fire officials.

"It just smelled like a whole bunch of things had been burnt together," she said.

Police at the Buffalo Grove Police Department's headquarters, more than four miles away, felt the ground shake, said Officer Robert Sizer, a desk officer at the station.

Buffalo Grove police were called to the scene to help local first responders, Sizer said. Local authorities received hundreds of calls after the explosion, he said.